The use of mobile technologies is steadily on the increase, for both business and personal uses. Mobile phones are a common site today and many people own personal information management (PIM) devices, palmtop computers, and so forth, to manage their schedules, contacts, and to stay connected with friends, family, and work. Employees on the move often appreciate the value of staying connected with their business through their mobile devices.
While a user of a mobile device may communicate with others using voice, email, or the like, communications with and/or through various application services on the internet may more commonly be performed using text messages, such as Short Message Service (SMS), Instant Messaging (IM), Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), Enhanced Message Service (EMS), or the like. In some instances, a user may request that an application service send text messages to another user. For example, a user might find an interesting article on the internet, and request that it be sent to other users. In another example, a user might learn of a free service from an application service, and request text message be sent to other users through the free service.
Unfortunately, there are a few users that abuse or otherwise take advantage of the application services. For example, it is not uncommon, to discover a user that requests text messages be sent to themselves. This may be the case where a user is paid or otherwise receives a reward to receive text messages. In another instance of abuse, a user might initiate text messages be sent to a plurality of users, where each recipient user is obligated to pay for the receipt of the text message. This type of abuse may not only result in abuse to the recipient user, but may actually damage a reputation of the sending application service that has been ‘tricked’ into sending the messages. Therefore, it is with respect to these considerations and others that the present invention has been made.